On September 4, the North Dakota recount for the June primary, for Secretary of State, was completed. Roland Riemers had sought the recount because the law required him to poll 300 votes, and the original count showed him with only 247. The recount only netted him one more vote. See this story.

Riemers asked the state to also include votes for him, for voters who voted for him and no one else for Secretary of State, but who also cast votes in the Democratic or Republican primaries for other offices. This is physically possible because the three party primary ballots are all on the same piece of paper. But the state refused to count those votes.

This useful five-page document summarizes the status of all the litigation involving the North Carolina 2018 election. The biggest unsettled case concerns the statewide ballot measures. UPDATE: later, on September 4, the North Carolina Supreme Court refused to disturb the statewide ballot measures, so the state is free to start printing ballots. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for that link.

The general election campaign season starts in earnest after Labor Day. For the next two months, state legislators who are running for re-election should be found speaking in public, or holding public meetings. This is the prime time for anyone to talk to a state legislator about bills in the 2019 sessions of legislatures. Many state legislatures have severe limits on how many bills any one legislator may introduce. Also many state legislatures have strick time limits. Indiana, for example, requires all new bills to be introduced December of the year before the session starts.

The ballot access laws have improved considerably in the last few years, and most of that progress has come from persuading state legislatures to ease the laws. But lobbying is urgently needed in Alabama, Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.